Why did the WiiU fail?

[NoirSon]

Poorest implementation of its unique features by a Nintendo console since the Virtual Boy if not just ever. The tablet controller had its uses but Nintendo themselves never really took advantage of it in most games and other developers just didn't care either after the initial run of attempts. Part of it might have been the cost but if that was going to be such a debilitating factor the tablet controller as the main feature should have just been scrapped.

Horrible overall branding and targeting of the audience. The fact that the Wii U looks exactly like a more rounder version of the Wii redesign is a bad enough sin. As overall reliance on the Wii brand despite the fact that their repeated usage of peripherals and shallow experiences ultimately drove away a good deal of the casual audience they brought in and traditional gamers left the Wii brand in rough shape by the time the Wii U even dropped outside of a few key areas (mainly the Just Dance and family friendly budget games). The fact that the Wii U's central function with the tablet and overall design philosophy was try to target the more traditional gamer while appealing to casuals that played the Wii left both audience groups confused and uninterested unless they were hardcore Nintendo fans and even a number of them stayed away. With the right push the Wii U could have found a decent enough groove despite being the weaker system but it wasn't given a chance with how badly Nintendo positioned it trying to have the casual audience cake they generated and let dwindle on the Wii while eating the traditional video game player soup that they paid lip service to while chasing casual cake.

Not going all out on technology, the Wii U has potential to much better then we have seen graphically, so let me just clear it up that I am not talking about its graphic capabilities. Which admittedly could be better and closer to its competition. The issues in technology I am talking about are some of the other features. The idea of a 8 GB hard drive storage being a baseline option, the overall performance of the UI at launch, the limited distance between main unit and Gamepad before connection issues and frankly how pathetic the online services were compared to its competition are things that hurt the system.


In plain the Wii U while a very good system and had some great games but it was a cluster of good ideas poorly implemented together. The Switch seems to have learned from its issues but despite the great start as the Wii showed Nintendo can still drop the ball before actually crossing the goal line.